US Army orders PAC-2 GEM-T missiles for first time in 30 years as Iran war depletes Patriot stocks.

On July 23, 2026, RTX confirmed that the U.S. Army awarded Raytheon a $441.6 million contract modification to procure newly manufactured PAC-2 GEM-T Patriot interceptors for the first time in over 30 years. The decision reverses a long-standing procurement focus on the PAC-3 MSE to rapidly address critical inventory depletion caused by heavy air defense expenditure during Operation Epic Fury against Iran. Integrating lower-cost GEM-T interceptors alongside hit-to-kill PAC-3 rounds allows military commanders to optimize magazine capacity against varied threat profiles while mitigating persistent supply chain bottlenecks.

The $441.6 million award to Raytheon finances an estimated 110 to 220 PAC-2 GEM-T interceptors to assist in offsetting the 1,060 to 1,430 Patriot missiles expended during recent military operations. Priced between $2 million and $4 million per round compared to $5.3 million for the PAC-3 MSE, the semi-active radar-guided GEM-T offers a cost-effective blast-fragmentation solution for cruise missile, aircraft, and lower-tier tactical ballistic missile engagements.

Related topic: Ukraine and US Raytheon agree on joint Patriot missile production to counter Russian ballistic strikes

A first U.S. Army PAC-2 GEM-T order in more than 30 years confirms that the 2026 Iran war forced Washington to rebuild depleted Patriot missile stockpiles by adopting a more cost-effective mix of interceptors to sustain future high-intensity campaigns. (Picture source: RTX)

On July 23, 2026, RTX confirmed that the U.S. Army had ordered newly manufactured PAC-2 GEM-T interceptors for the first time in more than 30 years, reversing a U.S. procurement pattern that had concentrated on the PAC-3 MSE. The order likely corresponds to a $441.6 million contract modification awarded to Raytheon on April 30, 2026, in support of Operation Epic Fury against Iran, with the contracted work scheduled for completion by September 30, 2026. RTX President Christopher Calio disclosed the order during the company’s second-quarter earnings call, which included more than $5 billion in GEM-T bookings, most of them with foreign customers.

A simple division by recent estimated GEM-T prices illustrates the likely scale but does not establish the actual quantity: at $2 million per missile, the U.S. Army contract could finance approximately 220 rounds, while a price of $3 million would reduce the figure to about 147 and a price of $4 million to about 110, before engineering, support, testing, transportation and contract-specific costs are included. The order is therefore large enough to strengthen the PAC-2 inventory, but not large enough by itself to replace the Patriot interceptors expended during the 2026 Iran war. The procurement decision followed a campaign in which Patriot expenditure moved far beyond the quantities assumed in peacetime budgets.

Before the Iran war, the United States held an estimated 2,330 to 2,500 Patriot interceptors across the PAC-2 and PAC-3 families, although as many as 400 older PAC-2 rounds may have been excluded from some inventory calculations. Between 1,060 and 1,430 Patriots were then fired during Operation Epic Fury, equivalent to approximately 42% to 61% of the estimated pre-war stock, depending on which inventory and expenditure figures are used. Those numbers matter because interceptor consumption was concentrated in the initial phase, when U.S., Israeli, and Gulf air defenses faced repeated attack from Iran and could not assume that every incoming track was a decoy, malfunctioning missile, or weapon headed toward an undefended area.

The estimated Patriot expenditure was equivalent to between 4.7 and 6.4 years of U.S. procurement at the previous ten-year average of 225 missiles annually, which explains why existing contracts could not replace the loss on a normal budget cycle. The PAC-2 GEM-T is a missile suited to part of the target set that does not always require PAC-3 MSEs. The PAC-2 is approximately 5.8 metres long, weighs about 900 kilograms and uses a solid-propellant rocket motor, with one missile loaded in each launch canister and four canisters carried by a Patriot launcher. The MIM-104D GEM, introduced during the mid-1990s, added a more sensitive seeker for smaller radar-cross-section targets and fuze changes intended to improve effectiveness against faster ballistic missiles. The later MIM-104E GEM+ received a new forward section, accuracy improvements, and reliability modifications.

Within that family, the GEM-C evolved from upgraded MIM-104C missiles and was optimized primarily for aircraft and cruise missiles, while the GEM-T evolved from upgraded MIM-104D rounds and received additional changes for tactical ballistic missile engagements. Raytheon continued to manufacture the GEM-T, making it the only PAC-2 variant still available as a new-production missile rather than solely through refurbishment of existing stocks. The PAC-2 GEM-T uses a semi-active radar guidance and destroys the target by detonating a high-explosive fragmentation warhead close enough to damage the airframe, guidance section, or warhead. In contrast, the PAC-3 CRI and PAC-3 MSE use a smaller missile body, an active radar seeker in the terminal phase, and hit-to-kill interception, in which the interceptor attempts to collide directly with the target.

PAC-3 missiles also carry a lethality enhancer that disperses metal fragments shortly before impact to improve effectiveness against aircraft and cruise missiles; the PAC-3 MSE uses a redesigned enhancer with titanium fragments. The MSE also adds a larger dual-pulse motor, larger folding control surfaces and higher terminal maneuverability, making it better suited to ballistic threats with high closing speeds, steep trajectories or terminal manoeuvres, such as the Russian 9M723 Iskander-M. The PAC-2 GEM-T remains useful against less demanding tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and aircraft that can be engaged by a lower-cost blast-fragmentation interceptor. An M903 launching station can carry four PAC-2 missiles, 16 PAC-3 CRI interceptors or 12 PAC-3 MSE rounds. A Patriot firing unit with eight launchers would therefore hold 32 PAC-2s, 128 PAC-3 CRIs or 96 PAC-3 MSEs if every launcher carried only one missile type.

In practice, Patriot units can mix PAC-2 and PAC-3 canisters on the same launcher, allowing commanders to configure the magazine for the expected balance between aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. The cost difference is equally important. The U.S. Army’s FY2027 budget valued the PAC-3 MSE at approximately $5.3 million per missile, while the GEM-T has been placed above $2 million and potentially in the $2 million to $4 million range because recent U.S. unit prices are not publicly defined. At these price levels, a $1 billion budget would buy roughly 188 PAC-3 MSE interceptors at $5.3 million each, or about 250 to 500 GEM-T missiles depending on whether the unit cost is closer to $4 million or $2 million.

If a battery fires two interceptors against one ballistic missile, a 100-target raid can require 200 rounds, producing an interceptor bill of approximately $1.06 billion with MSEs alone, compared with about $600 million at a notional $3 million GEM-T price. The cheaper GEM-T missile therefore increases the number of engagements that can be funded, but the smaller PAC-3 gives each launcher three to four times greater capacity. Production capacity currently remains the limiting factor because the Patriot customer base now includes the United States and 18 other countries, while Ukraine has received more than 600 interceptors from the United States and allied stocks since 2022. Lockheed Martin produced about 500 PAC-3 MSE missiles in 2024 and delivered 620 in 2025, equal to an average of approximately 52 per month.

A seven-year framework agreed in January 2026 seeks to increase annual PAC-3 MSE capacity from roughly 600 to 2,000 missiles, or from about 50 to 167 per month, by 2030. Until that level is reached, replacing the 1,060 to 1,430 expended Patriots at a production rate of 600 to 650 annually would require roughly 20 to 29 months of total factory output, and substantially longer if approximately half of production continues to go to allied customers. The expansion also depends on output from suppliers producing rocket motors, radar seekers, guidance electronics, flight control assemblies, energetic materials, canisters and test equipment. Lockheed Martin received a $4.7 billion undefinitized contract action in April 2026 to continue accelerated PAC-3 MSE production, but additional final assembly capacity does not remove bottlenecks among lower-tier suppliers.

Raytheon and MBDA Deutschland are addressing the same problem for the GEM-T through a new manufacturing capability in Schrobenhausen, Germany, which adds a second geographic base for PAC-2 production but must still work through an existing backlog. In response, in June 2026, the House Armed Services Committee directed the Secretary of the Army to provide a Patriot inventory briefing by March 1, 2027. The required subjects include separate PAC-2 and PAC-3 stockpile levels, planned deliveries across the Future Years Defense Plan, remaining shelf life, inventory sufficiency against approved force growth, the Army’s Total Munitions Requirement and options for additional PAC-2 procurement, PAC-2 modernization or a new Patriot-compatible interceptor.

The U.S. Army has also established a requirement for a new interceptor costing no more than $1 million, compared with $5.3 million for PAC-3 MSE. Lockheed Martin’s new PAC-3 ACE, unveiled on July 20, 2026, targets a price below half the MSE cost, implying a ceiling below $2.65 million, and is intended for aircraft, cruise missiles, close-range ballistic missiles and short-range ballistic missiles. Its precise specs have not been released, but its purpose is clear: assign a cheaper missile to targets that do not require the PAC-3 MSE. The US Army is consequently moving toward a layered Patriot magazine composed of GEM-T, PAC-3 CRI, PAC-3 MSE and potentially ACE or another low-cost interceptor.

Each missile could therefore be assigned according to target speed, trajectory, manoeuvrability, defended asset value and available stock. The April 2026 GEM-T award is an immediate procurement response to wartime expenditure, but the larger policy issue is whether annual production, launcher inventories and interceptor prices can support repeated campaigns without consuming several years of replacement output in the opening weeks, a constraint that has already become visible as both U.S. and Ukrainian Patriot units have, at times, been unable to intercept all incoming targets due to this stock depletion.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.

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